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Portrait image of John Fowles Photo: Ulf Andersen / Hulton Archive via Getty Images (1987)

Sample of authors

Fowles, John

John Robert Fowles was born in a middle-class family in the Essex town of Leigh-on-Sea. His father, Robert Fowles, dreamt of a career in the legal profession, but when the First World War broke out he was instead forced to take over the family's tobacco business. His mother, Gladys May, was a housewife. Fowles grew up in the security of a terraced housing estate, but later in life he confessed...

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Literary figures

David Ash

Gender: Male

An ‘occult’ detective in Great Britain who solves cases with supernatural elements. David Ash, who is the main character in three novels by horror-fiction writer James Herbert, is middle-aged, has thick, untidy hair – partly grey – and blue eyes. He is critical of his superiors, cynical, but despite his successes also insecure, which means that he drinks too much and has problems getting close to...

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